My View: Protest push for morgue/jail in Ogle County

Saturday

Mar 15, 2014 at 6:00 PM

A critical issue in Ogle County government is flying under the radar of public knowledge. If it isn’t corrected within days, $873,680 in previously valid property investment for a citizen-convenient County Government Campus adjacent to the new Judicial Center will be “parked” for the next 50 years — or longer.

There is an attempt to place a County Sheriff’s Administration/Coroner’s Morgue Building, and later a jail, in the middle of the city of Oregon’s planned Riverfront Tourism District on First Street.

The reason for the irresponsible push on that site has yet to be disclosed. (Why the secrecy?) The First Street location is contrary to the county’s $63,180 Architect’s Space Needs Study and would leave the Judicial Center complex high and dry.

At the same time, it would put a disconnected, tax-exempt government facility in the middle of a planned tourism area, effectively slamming the brakes on the economic development effort, created by a $60,000 Comprehensive Plan professionally prepared for the city with your taxpayer dollars.

The Riverfront Tourism District expanding the $75 million tourism impact in Ogle County would, in the long run, create dozens of property-taxpaying buildings, job-creation numbers on the order of another Etnyres or Woods, and bring a multitude of sales-taxpaying customers to Ogle County, much like the riverfront that has transformed the entire community of Dixon.

Needless to say, tourism and image-conscious businesses are not going to be neighbors to a morgue and a jail. People who are disturbed by this less-than-transparent process should make their feelings known to all 24 Ogle County Board members. They are listed on oglecounty.org and are available in print at the county clerk’s office in the Old Courthouse.

Also, letters from a number of concerned organizations, a County Campus timeline from 1990-2014 and a copy of the Ogle County Amendatory Comprehensive Plan are available for review at the county clerk’s office. Copies of the City of Oregon Comprehensive Plan are available at Oregon City Hall, 115 N. Third St.

In addition to calls, letters and emails, plan to attend the Ogle County Board meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on the third floor of the Old Courthouse, 105 S. Fifth St. in Oregon, to see how the board responds to your expectations.

Protocol calls for a quiet, sign-free audience. To make your concern apparent, wear red — a coat, hat, scarf, shirt or blouse. A sea of red in the audience will quietly and politely send your message loud and clear.